Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,149

On Friday, April 18, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• 71 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or intercepted overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, of which 49 were fatally shot in the Kursk region.
• According to state news agency TASS, the ministry reportedly seized the village of Preobrazhensky in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.
• Russia launched five missiles and 75 drones at Ukraine overnight, according to Kyiv’s air force, 25 of which were shot down, and 30 of them did not arrive at their targets due to electronic warfare measures.

• According to regional governor Serhiy Lysak, two people were killed and five were hurt by Russian artillery shelling in Nikopol, in southern Ukraine.
• Three people were killed in the most recent mass killings in Dnipro by Russians, and 31 others were hurt. According to Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov, at least 15 other buildings were also damaged.
• Two road workers were killed by a Russian drone attack in Kherson’s southern region of Ukraine, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of the area.
• Near the Ukrainian cities of Udachne, Kotlyne, and Shevchenko, all of which are close to Pokrovsk, the country’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, claimed that Ukraine had acquired a small area of land measuring about 16 square kilometers (6 square miles).

Ceasefire

• Despite a mutually agreed 30-day moratorium on energy strikes, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s management, under the leadership of Russia, claimed Ukrainian drones were attacking the facility.
• According to Maria Zakharova, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ukraine has already carried out 80 strikes on energy sites. In the last day, ten attacks have been carried out, according to Moscow’s defense ministry.
• DTEK, the country’s largest private energy producer, claimed that Russian drone strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region had destroyed the country’s energy infrastructure.

• According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, a delegation from the Ukraine met with representatives from the UK, France, and Germany in Paris to discuss a potential ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.
• In Paris, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff addressed Ukraine and the European nations’ requests for an equitable ceasefire agreement.
• A meeting between the US, Ukraine, and other European nations in Paris, according to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, would provide Witkoff with an update on the status of the ceasefire discussions.
• Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Witkoff was “extremely productive,” according to a Russian envoy, who accused some nations of trying to stifle the dialogue between the two nations.

diplomacy and politics

According to Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko, the US and Ukraine have signed a memorandum of intent as a first step toward a conclusion of an agreement regarding the extraction of minerals in Ukraine.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, urged Russia to put an end to its three-year conflict with Kyiv.
• Additionally, President Zelenskyy claimed that there is proof that China supplied Russia with artillery and gunpowder.
• Zelenskyy claimed that Russia has started focusing instead on civilian infrastructure rather than reducing its attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities.
• Zelenskyy added that Kyiv was willing to purchase at least ten Patriot air defense systems to defend itself from Russian attacks.
• According to Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Germany would be regarded as having directly participated in the Ukrainian conflict by using a Taurus missile. Her remarks came after Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor-in-waiting, said he was willing to send missiles to Kyiv.